Question about "D-Day"

[chipbgt]

Ok, in movies like Saving Private Ryan you see those boats opening up to drop troops and as soon as they open 30 guys would get mowed down as they had no where to go....was this accurate?

Wouldnt it have mad more sense to let them exit the boat from the REAR so they at least had a chance to spread out? Or are these movies inaccurate?

[blind to truth]

i dont think they made a hatchback model

http://replica.eb.mirror-image.com/normandy/art/onavsup001p1.jpg

http://replica.eb.mirror-image.com/normandy/art/onasuex001p1.jpg

from the second pic,it looks like the directors verison of WWII was a bit exagerated.

[This message has been edited by blind to trees (edited 08-19-1986).]

[This message has been edited by blind to truth (edited 08-19-2000).]

[chipbgt]

Those are great shots...see but couldnt they just turn those boats around?

[bkehoe]

While unrelated, that film was filmed only a few miles away from where I live. A good few locals were extras in it. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

Brendan

[blind to truth]

i dont know chip.I'll see if a kind find some blue prints on it,but i think that in 1944 or so they might not have had a reverse gear,or mabey just a two speed trans in it,or mabey because (from what i remeber)they didn't expect that many casuallties.


sheesh! wait a second.how long are those boats?like 10 feet or longer?if they drove them in backwards,the guys would just drowned with all that equipment and in the waves splashing over them if they treid to unload off the deep end.Besides,from what i saw,the angle from which the nazis were shooting,they would just shoot them in the backs anyway.heh

[This message has been edited by blind to truth (edited 08-19-2000).]

[alpha]

Bkehoe:
What county do you live in again? I'm sorry, I can't remember. It's just I'll be in Wexford for the week, just wondering if you're any where near http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[Gomer]

From what I have read about this moive, it is extemely accuarate. There were indeed some of those landing craft in which there were no survivors when they dropped the hatch. Think how many guns were trained on the first craft to arrive. The moment the hatch dropped, they were met with a wall of fire. Although it is not pretty to watch, I am pretty sure that is the way it went down.

[ck42866]

where is the propellers on those things?

[Fingers]

http://normandy.eb.com/normandy/week2/images/onormay221a4.gif
"The LCVP could carry 36 combat-equipped infantrymen or 8,000 pounds (3,600 kilograms) of cargo from ship to shore"

Chip, read the first 4 paragraphs, it seems to indicates that "Saving Private Ryan" was pretty accurate. http://home.flash.net/~paidion/church/fubar.htm


[This message has been edited by Fingers (edited 08-19-2000).]

[tonym]

Remember when the combatants stood eyeball-to-eyeball and shot/reloaded/shot/reloaded...they tried to fight war by the "Marquis of Queensbury Rules"? Fair fight, valor and the like. When WWII rolled around, the historical pursuit of valor and honor and hearldry in warfare was replaced with a techo-ideological pursuit of victory, at all costs.

In WWI, the generals were forced to fight a war of attrition because of the technology that was available to them. Send 100,000 troops when you only need 50,000 to do the job because you expect losses of 50,000. The LST was the perfect example that men in/at war are EXPENDABLE. Not on a unit/platoon/company level, but to a general and his planners, they HAVE to be tokens on a board, the tools of war. The LST was a carrier of as many troops as was physically possible to disgourge them en masse into the battle zone. It was never intended to protect them...it ws simply a water-borne troop conveyor belt from the troop ships off shore.

When the Allied soldiers hit the beaches of Normandy, the Germans could only possibly kill so many with the guns/ammo that were available. The men that died weren't sacrificial, either. They fought and died and very much contributed to the victory in Europe with their blood evey bit as much as the "Pvt. Ryans" that survived. Their death allowed others to survive and go on to victory.

If the Allied military had used the "nobody may die" philosophy, then I'm afraid that we'd all be Nazis right now! The individual brave men were at the unawares that a very high percentage of them were expected to die in an effort to make the beach head.

It's not a pleasant thought, but I thank God for their bravery and heroism...I don't know if I were there I'd have been standing or crawling when the steel door slammed open and it was my turn to "hit the beach". You'd like to think that you'd be the picture of a hero in that situation, charging like John Wayne onto the beach. I just don't know how I would have performed.

All I do know is that those men answered the call and I for one am eternally grateful!


Tony

[barry glisson]

You are taught that if you hesitate you die. Keep moving forward you might survive. Its the same in an ambush. Atack in a forward direction because the enemy will have a cross fire in a retreatable direction. At least thats what the U.S.M.C. told me. barry

[stylin19]

barry..Semper Fi. me = USMC 1969-1971
If the USMC said it...of course it's true. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[ILC]

The reasons they dropped from the bottom is so that the tropps had a shorter distance to go through the water. Try running in water...you ant do it, especially with a 50lb pack on your back. Being slowed down in the water made you a much easier target.

ILC

[GhostAgent]

Yes, i would consider moving through water a major issue as little as it seems. Either way they'd be mowed down, unless they could find some coral to hide behind...hehe.